Faulkner's "Barn Burning"

Problems Reading Faulkner

First, I would like to say that I had a little difficult time reading “Barn Burning” and still follow the plot fully.  I feel as though Faulkner’s syntax is (hmmm . . . . .how do I say this?) cluttered? Or at least it feels cluttered.  And there is something about his diction that makes it hard for me to focus and keep the plot in mind at the same time.

Maybe it is the way he uses pronouns?

I think this could have been intentional.  Faulkner is writing with the perspective of a ten year old in mind.  There are points when then text is obviously fragmented to only show the reader what the boy sees.

An example of this is when the young boy is chopping wood- the reader sees several brief scenes and then the boy chops more wood.

Solution

I read “Barn Burning” twice, wrote on the side of the book (I always do though) and focused on specific elements of the story.  

Point of View

One of the elements I focused on was point of view.  Faulkner writes this short story from the limited omniscience perspective.  But he adds inner monologues that offer hints into the father and events that that happed before the story starts.  He also gives the perspective of the boy’s future self which allows him to explore/ explain the father character better.  

What’s with the “groves”?

In “Barn Burning” the scenes are frequently set using “groves” of two types of trees.  I thought at first that they might show a shift in the story or have some sort of other purpose.  But I have had a hard time proving anything yet with the text.

I definitely feel like Faulkner uses nature in an interesting way.  It is almost like he interrupts his own style with these images of birds and trees.  It fits with the story still but it feels like it is so obviously deliberate that it must serve a certain purpose.